Sing Buri
Chao Phraya rice bowl province losing farmers—49% of agricultural labor now 40-60yo (up from 39%), young workers down to 32%, 142km from Bangkok.
Sing Buri is aging faster than it can farm. The province sits in the Chao Phraya River Basin—Thailand's rice bowl—contributing to the 30% of national production that flows from this fertile alluvial corridor. But the hands that plant and harvest are graying. Agricultural laborers aged 40–60 now comprise 49% of the workforce, up from 39% in 2003; young farmers (15–40) dropped from 48% to 32% over the same decade.
The province covers 822 square kilometers of rice paddies and fishing grounds along the Chao Phraya. In Muang Sing Buri district, freshwater catfish farms supplement rice income. The Bang Rachan district preserves the site where villagers famously resisted Burmese invasion in 1765—a cultural touchstone that draws domestic tourists but little international attention.
Infrastructure connects Sing Buri to Bangkok (142 km) but hasn't arrested demographic decline. Younger workers migrate to factory jobs; older farmers remain on land whose productivity depends on aging bodies and irrigation systems. By 2026, Sing Buri exemplifies Thailand's rural crisis: fertile land, reliable water, proven crops, and insufficient young labor to work them.